Sanctuary Making examines the intensification of immigration enforcement and its consequences on young adults and their families. The book speaks to current events and is based on 103 in-depth interviews with members of undocumented and mixed-status families (that is, where at least one member is undocumented and another has some type of legal status). It captures how through changes in U.S. immigration policy, enforcement is increasingly permeating nontraditional sites (such as public roads, ethnic grocery stores, and apartment complexes). It reveals the emotional and material labor of young adults that often underpins families’ sanctuary making efforts—strategies to shield against the worst outcomes of enforcement. Many young adults are compelled to take on parental responsibilities and serve as a primary source of emotional support for family members while also brokering legal processes tied to their family’s immigration cases. The book can be taught in a variety of courses, including those related to immigration, education, youth and families, race and ethnicity, U.S.-Mexico borderlands, qualitative research methods, law and society, among others.

You can purchase a copy through UC Press or Amazon, among other retailers.

Below is a selected excerpt from the book as it relates to the tolls of enforcement on young adults like Maricela:

“For some time, Maricela had been experiencing sudden emotional breakdowns. ‘There have been times where I am at work, and I can’t control my emotions and I start crying at work,’ Maricela started to cry as she continued, ‘and then I have to hide because I don’t want anyone to see me.’ […] Throughout the interview, Maricela reflected on the weight of having to lead two separate lives. At work, she learned to hide her emotions and the fact that she had a college degree to avoid probing questions from others about why she was not pursuing her career aspirations. In her dating life, she did not tell others about her immigration status, work, or college degree.” (page 113, Valdivia 2026).

You can purchase a copy of Sanctuary Making through UC Press or Amazon, among other retailers.

REVIEWS

“This is a book with a sense of urgency. From the first line—’They took Dad’—you know that something is changing in the United States and that immigrants are being targeted. Families respond in many different ways when one of their members is deported, and Valdivia’s fantastic research is so deep, so compelling. It’s impossible not to be touched by the human tragedy we are living. This is an essential book to understand the new United States.”—Jorge Ramos, Emmy Award–winning journalist and former Univision News anchor

“Amid the widening scope of immigration enforcement—now extending into private spaces and neighborhoods and involving an ever-expanding range of actors—Sanctuary Making reveals how families are reconfigured, centering the vital emotional and material labor of young adults in fostering a sense of safety and belonging for their families. The book is filled with experiences that are shared by millions of immigrant families as they confront today’s sweeping interior enforcement. A timely and insightful contribution that merits wide readership.”—Cecilia Menjívar, Dorothy L. Meier Chair in Social Equities and Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

“In an era when immigration enforcement is overtaking American public spaces to an astonishing degree, Carolina Valdivia’s book presents an extraordinarily timely, probing, rigorous, and eloquent analysis of the intersection of space, enforcement, and sanctuary among immigrant families. Based on a sample of over one hundred members of immigrant families, Valdivia recounts moving narratives of immigrants carving safety out of spaces that have become increasingly surveilled, policed, and dangerous, with pointed recommendations for what individuals, networks, organizations, and advocates can do in response.”—Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Courtney Sale Ross Professor of Globalization and Education and University Professor, New York University

“The scholarship is excellent—the work is well researched, thoroughly analyzed, and expertly written. This sort of intimate exploration of the daily navigation of illegality and deportability is rare and critically important. It takes a very particular kind of scholar to do this work and to do it well; Carolina Valdivia is that scholar, and this book is a testament to her position as a new, leading voice in the field.”—Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Professor, University of San Francisco School of Education

You can purchase a copy of Sanctuary Making through UC Press or Amazon, among other retailers.

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Categories: Immigration Books, Research

Tags: book, college, Immigration